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Showing posts from November, 2017

Sermon - Trinity XVII, 2026 - Luke 14:1-11

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The Peasant Wedding , Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567 Honor in the Kingdom of Heaven The exalted ones are humbled The humbled ones are exalted “ When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ” Jesus isn’t just talking about party etiquette. Sometimes Jesus uses ridiculous parables to teach a heavenly truth, other times He uses ordinary and relatable and uniformly understood parables to teach a heavenly truth. Today Jesus uses a well understood and practiced social custom about seating at wedding feasts. Everyone knows, regardless of you...

Sermon: Advent I - 2017

“ And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! ” “ Behold, your King is coming to you. ” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: we are just three short weeks away from Christmas beginning. Stores may have had their Christmas items out since before halloween, but now it’s December, Christmas is definitely coming. Thus with Christmas on the mind of our nation, what’s personally on your mind? Do visions of sugar-plums dance in your head? Or like many, is your mind preoccupied with matters you’d rather it not be? Instead of excitement, you feel only anxiety over the long to-do list. Instead of joy, you feel only loneliness. Instead of jubilation, you feel only sorrow about those who you can’t spend Christmas with. The only thing on your mind is that long illness, the winter blues, old memories you wish could be made new again. My dear friends, today marks ...